What Would Happen if a 200-Foot Asteroid Exploded Over Casper

You can sleep easy tonight knowing this isn't likely to happen in our lifetime, but what if a 200-foot asteroid exploded over Casper? Thanks to a recent scientific study, we know what that might be like. Let's put it this way. It would be a very bad day.

NASA recently issued a surprising statement saying we should expect a major asteroid impact in our lifetime. That's a happy thought, NASA. Thanks.

There was a recent news story on Science Alert about how NASA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the European Space Agency did a mock exercise over what would happen if a 200-foot asteroid were to explode over New York City. We obviously don't live in New York, but using their study, we can know what would happen if this occurred over Wyoming.

In this hypothetical situation where we in Casper were the lucky ones to be directly under this asteroid explosion, the area inside the red circle would be completely flattened based on this recent experiment.

Based on the 200-foot asteroid in the FEMA/NASA scenario, everything within a 32 mile radius of Casper would be completely flattened. Ouch. Catastrophic damage would extend out at least 10 miles beyond that. In other words, a very bad day.

As Yahoo and Business Insider shared about this asteroid simulation exercise, these federal agencies conduct these what-if scenarios so if a real threat appeared, they would have experience devising a plan.

Is this likely? No. Is this possible? Definitely. Now, let's go watch Deep Impact and Armageddon so at least we'll be entertained if a big space rock takes aim at us.